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USDA Decides to Spare Produce Testing Program This Year

After an uptick in press coverage on the impending shutdown of the Microbiological Data Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to keep the produce testing program running, at least through the end of the year.

AsFood Safety News reported last week, if the program were to shut down, as it was slated to at the end of this month, public testing for pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella on commodities like tomatoes, lettuce and cantaloupes would drop by 80 percent.

“While the Microbiological Data Program does not align with USDA’s core mission, the department will continue its work with state partners using existing agreements to conduct sampling and testing through this program through the end of the year,” a spokesman told Food Safety News late Monday night.

The Obama administration did not request funding for the little-known $4.5 million program in its fiscal year 2013 budget request, arguing that the food safety program did not belong under the Agricultural Marketing Service, where it is currently housed, and Congress has so far not included the program in appropriations bills. (AMS did not respond to a question late Monday about why the Pesticide Data Program, also a food safety program, was not being targeted for elimination in the budget).

State officials who work in MDP labs, which pull produce samples in 11 states, had not been given formal notice about the future of the program as of last week, but some told Food Safety News they had been informed that regular MDP sampling would cease at the end of July. The FDA has not announced any plans to increase produce testing if MDP is cut.

The produce industry has long lobbied to eliminate MDP because its discoveries sometimes lead to food recalls, even though the program was originally created to collect data on produce contamination — data that can be used by both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to solve foodborne illness outbreaks and designate high-risk produce commodities. The produce industry has argued that recalls sparked by the program happen too late to prevent contaminated product from reaching consumers.

But public health advocates, including Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), have argued that MDP is a valuable, cost-effective public health program worth keeping. The program samples between 16,000 and 18,000 produce commodities annually, which is about four times what FDA does, even though the agency has jurisdiction over produce safety.

I have noticed recalls in the past that have been after the best buy date on several occasions. There does need to be some type of system in place to track and prevent the public from ingesting produce contaminated foods. Just because some of the food recalls came late shouldn’t stop the testing process altogether.

“But public health advocates, including Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), have argued that MDP is a valuable, cost-effective public health program worth keeping.”
Damn right it is. I mean we have a lot of contaminated food reaching our store shelves, why try and cut a program that help prevent people from ingesting it? It’s a very basic concept, and they should actually be putting MORE funding in prevention programs, so that less funding can go toward recalling and post-contamination programs.